Though the name was only officially registered in the mid-90s, perhaps the most famous brand of notebooks in the world is Moleskine, who have been endorsed by writers like Neil Gaiman and Bruce Chatwin, and whose makers famously brag were used by Vincent Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Earnest Hemingway, and Henri Matisse. Whether those art and literary luminaries every actually used Moleskine notebooks or not, they remain massively popular with artists and writers today (my most artistic friends swear by them).
But how many thousands of artists toil away in their oilcloth-covered cardboard notebooks, producing great masterpieces that are never seen? How many unknown talents are creating amazing piece of art in these tiny notebooks everyday? The Moleskine Project, which launched on October 8th, aims to discover some of these hidden gems of the art world.
Art by Mattias Adolfsson.
The Moleskine Project is a blog project that solicits scans or photos of Moleskine notebook pages from artists around the world. Submitted art is posted to the blog, along with the artists name, title of the piece, a link to the artists web page, and details about the method or technique used (used for categorization).
In just a couple of weeks, the Moleskine Project has already gathered a small treasure trove of work from talented artists from all over the world. I love watching my friends (who have far more artistic talent than I) doodle in their Moleskines, so I was excited to get a peek into the sketchbooks of other artists. So far, the Moleskine Project does not disappoint. The quality of the artwork is high, and the site is well curated. It’s definitely worth checking out.
